You need to get most of these elements right to do well financially with your company.

But having observed so many entrepreneurs over the last 30 years succeed or not succeed, I think there’s a more important overarching factor that dictates business success with much greater accuracy.

And that element comes down to one, very simple question:

“Am I totally committed to get this business great?”

It’s really all that matters, because even if every single element of your company is being done poorly, a business can still be turned around and become an outstanding success, as long as we have the commitment to stick with it and improve our situation.

Now I’m not talking about a mild enthusiasm to get things right. I’m talking about a fiery and complete devotion to making any change necessary to ensure the success of your enterprise.

Even if it’s hard. Even if it’s tedious.

Even if we have to do tasks we despise.

Even if it takes ages to get things functioning to the necessary standard.

Before all the tactics and the strategies, must come the total and utter COMMITMENT.

That, and only that matters, in the end.

Everything else can be solved, with time and effort and others to help you.

So ask yourself, “Am I totally committed to get this business great?”

If the answer is truly and emphatically Yes, then all will be well.

If the answer is No or Maybe, then either get out of your company, or uplift your commitment to the required level.

I was talking with a client today who said he had a mental block about going out there and selling his company’s services.

He knew he had to do it. (He needed the revenue badly.)

But at the same time he felt really uncomfortable about contacting potential clients and pitching to them.

He’s not alone.

There really are so many business owners who feel like this. And if you are one of them, that feeling is costing you a fortune

You need to change your attitude to selling. Fast. And today I’d like to give you a few points on how to do that.

1. Remember All The Greatest Entrepreneurs Focus On Sales

No matter how rich you are, you still have to sell someone on what you’re doing, why it’s awesome and why they should give you money.

Think of any billionaire, and you’ll see that at the very center of their business is them selling.

Rupert Murdoch must sell the syndicate of banks that issue News Corp loans that his company is a great investment.

Elon Musk must convince the public (and the world’s journalists) that his electric car is the future of the automobile.

Oprah invested in Weight Watchers and is now on TV selling women on why they should sign up for it.

And even the great Steve Jobs was famous as much for his ability to sell Apple’s latest range at product launches, as for the products themselves.

If even the richest, most successful entrepreneurs on the planet are fine with focusing on sales, then surely it’s okay for us to get our hands dirty doing it.

2. Realize That The Best Product Often Doesn’t Win. The Best Salesperson Almost Always Wins

Let’s take the industry that you are in for example. If the best product wins, how come you know numerous companies that have a mediocre product and yet they still keep picking up clients?

As Brian Tracy said, “Nothing will make you madder than seeing someone dumber than you making more money than you”.

Ain’t that the truth!

Why are those mediocre companies getting clients? Because they are focusing a lot of their time on getting leads and converting them. Otherwise known as Sales.

3. Don’t Put Your Feelings Ahead Of Your Schedule

Once you realize that sales is the most important part of your business, you must commit to doing it in the most important way: scheduling it into your daily calendar.

If you don’t have solid blocks of time allocated in your calendar every week to getting more sales for your company, your company’s future is bleak.

You must schedule time to work on sales.

But equally importantly, you must actually do the sales work at the time you said you would – even when you don’t feel like it, even when you’re busy running your business. Even when you’re feeling down about life, your company, or the world.

You must make your feelings subservient to your commitments. And when you commit to spending a certain amount of time each week on sales you simply must do it.

No matter how you feel.

I’m not saying any of this is easy. But if you can make these three mental shifts your business wealth will grow exponentially.

These 3 ways of looking at business are at the very heart of any successful entrepreneur.

Over the years, companies have become much more professional at winning clients.

Slide decks look more sophisticated.

Background research has got more comprehensive.

Presentation skills have got slicker.

In a nutshell, overall professionalism has greatly improved.

But as we have become more smooth in what we present to clients ( and how we present it), there’s one area that seems to have been forgotten.

Yet this one element is often more important in convincing clients to pick your company than all those other factors put together.

What is this missing element?

Raw enthusiasm and passion.

Enthusiasm for the client’s issue. Passion for what we present.

You see, clients don’t just buy good answers. They also buy the people who are presenting them.

Often, clients find it difficult to pick which company they want to go with. Sometimes all the finalist companies present very similar solutions to their brief.

So they revert to giving their business to the people who seem genuinely excited by the opportunity. Who exude optimism and certainty about what they present. Who seem like they actually give a damn about helping them.

Clients are right to look for this. Because when the euphoria of winning the account has worn away, all that the client has really bought is the dedication and passion of the team working to help them. Someone might be super experienced and ultra bright, but if they don’t really care that much about helping the customer then the outcome will usually be mediocre.

So next time you do a new client presentation, try doubling your enthusiasm and passion when you’re with them. Show them how thrilled and honoured you would be to work with them. Show them you really, really value the opportunity, have come up with a brilliant solution and intend to hit this one out of the park.

Watch how their eyes (and wallets) open.

Personal enthusiasm and passion. Definitely the most underestimated way to win clients.

The current culture of entrepreneurialism seems to worship working exceedingly hard.

And let’s be honest, there’s no doubt that working hard for long periods can aid business success.

But what I often see is a dark side to working hard that actually reduces the profits of the entrepreneur.

You of course already know the virtues of working hard, but here are 3 dangers that you should also consider:

1. Your Productivity Can Plummet

C. Northcote Parkinson came up with Parkinson’s Law, in my view one of the most important concepts of human effectiveness.

The law is as follows: ‘Work expands to fill the time allotted for it.’

Put in other words, if you work longer hours you often take longer to do things.

I have seen this again and again with business owners I coach.

They are immensely committed, working often 14 hours a day, sometimes 6 days a week. But if you look at their output it often is not much better than someone working 45 hours a week efficiently.

You need to put pressure on yourself to get tasks completed quickly. And working short hours is one of the most efficacious ways of doing that.

2. Your Brain Does Not Assimilate Information As Quickly

It is well known in neuro performance research circles that when you stop work and go home to rest and sleep, your brain uses your off time to organize files of data that have occurred during the day, and connect them with other pieces of data previously stored there. It then attempts to make meaning of the data collected to help you make decisions.

So if the amount of rest and sleep is limited in your life because you are working long hours, you can find that the quality of your thinking can be impeded. Your conclusions about important issues may not be as sound, your ideas may not be as plentiful.

3. Your Subconscious May Begin To Dislike You Working In Your Company

If you are feeling stressed about work because of incessant long hours your subconscious and semi-conscious mind can start having negative thoughts about being an entrepreneur. Yes you’ll still want to succeed, but there may be parts of you that wonder whether it’s all worth it. And as a result you can become less enthused by your company, and some say can even self-sabotage your success, so you are forced to work less hard.

I know that these 3 points are not commonly thought about, in this culture of ultra work. But please consider them.

They may be unusual ways of thinking. But thinking unusually is at the heart of entrepreneurial success.

Over the years I’ve learned over a hundred techniques for lifting a company’s income.

But there is one strategy that is so simple it’s almost ridiculous. Yet the entrepreneurs who really embrace it report extraordinary results.

It takes only a few days to do, and can then be used to reliably increase a company’s revenue for decades.

What is this crazily simple technique?

Make more offers to your clients.

Let me explain. Generally entrepreneurs have a handful of services they offer to their clients. And rarely are clients offered anything new down the track.

That’s such a wasted opportunity.

You go to all the trouble of winning over a client, then you keep giving them the same menu of services. Yes they may like what you do, but you’re missing the chance to make a lot more money from them.

Just ask yourself, what else could you offer them?

Is there something deeper? Or more expensive? Is there a service you could offer that is closely aligned to what you do now but different?

Could you offer them another company’s services?

With a little thought I’m confident you’ll come up with several additional services you can offer them. Now spread out those offers throughout the year, so that every quarter you offer your clients a different service. (So in total you have at least 4 different offerings).

The result of this extremely simple technique can be wondrous on your bottom line.

It usually improves your client relationships too. Clients see your company as forward thinking, progressive, proactive. Always coming up with fresh ways to help them.

As you probably know, I spend a huge amount of time studying the art and science of business success.

As a result, I’m frequently asked what business books I recommend.

There really are SO many awesome books, it’s hard to choose which ones to suggest for you.

But below I’ve compiled a list of 5 that most people haven’t read or even heard of, but I view as being extremely useful for entrepreneurs.

1. From Zero To One, by Peter Thiel

This is written by one of our era’s most successful and controversial founders, Peter Thiel.It’s got some radical views about what makes a superb business, but reading it you can see how Thiel became a legend in the technology and venture capital worlds.

2. The Founder’s Mentality, by Chris Zook and James Allen

These guys work at Bain, one of the perennially hot management consulting firms. The book is very simply written, but is crammed with important research on what common traits of thinking successful company founders possess.

3. The Sales Acceleration Formula, by Mark Roberge

This is all about using data, technology and inbound selling to go from $0 to $100 million. What makes it really interesting is the author used this exact technique to grow a hugely successful sales based organisation with phenomenally fast growth. It’s all about turning your sales system into a predictable machine.

4. Playing To Win, by A.G Lafley and Roger L. Martin

This book is totally focused on how to develop a great strategy for your company. Lafley was the CEO of Proctor And Gamble during some of it’s finest years- the guy is a legend in consumer goods marketing. You’ll be amazed at how often he took an ordinary, boring product category and revolutionised it with creative product development. If you think there’s no room to break the mould in your industry you’ll think differently after reading this insightful book.

5. Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got, by Jay Abraham

This is one of those rare books where you can literally just copy the author’s suggestions and you will almost certainly increase your company’s sales. It is full of practical methods of increasing revenue, if you are willing to put in some work to make them happen. Read Abraham’s book and you will know how to make any company more profitable.

Okay, so there’s 5 awesome business books. Pick one right now and order it – you won’t regret it.

In the end, business is about knowledge and action. Any of these books will give you knowledge most of your competitors are simply unaware of. It’s an incredible advantage to know some of this stuff.

Then it’s up to you of course to take action on what you learn, methodically, comprehensively and daily.

Most people push through it, work much longer hours and just accept that they are in a stressful period. In essence, they try to out work the problem.

I coach a lot of entrepreneurs, and when I see they are overloaded with work I suggest they do the opposite.

Stop work entirely. Take a break. Get centered and calm.

Then begin the process of getting clarity over your work situation.

Here are the 5 ways to get clarity.

1. Tidy up your work environmentYour office environment definitely affects how well you think. A messy desk helps create a messy mind. It’s hard to think clearly when your direct work environment is chaotic. Just ten minutes cleaning, tidying and organising your desk makes a phenomenal difference to how well you think. And how on top of things you feel.

2. Write down absolutely everything you have to doOne of the main reasons we get stressed as entrepreneurs is the sheer number of tasks we have to do weighs us down. This feeling is magnified when we are not absolutely sure what we should do. Take another ten minutes to get on paper every To Do you have– put your business tasks on one page and your personal tasks on another.

3. Prioritise your tasksPut the number 1 next to your most important To Do. Then put a 2 next to your next most important, etc. This creates a further level of clarity and calm as you realize that many of the jobs you may have been fretting about are just not that important. Usually only a few of your To Do’s really matter. Getting clear on the vital few makes a world of difference to your stress levels. This should take another 5 minutes.

4. Discipline yourself to work on the most important tasks firstThis is not easy. Many of us pick the easy or fun tasks to do, particularly when we are stressed. If you can force yourself to work on each item on the list in accordance with the priority number you gave it, then you will find you will make huge progress quickly.

5. Avoid perfectionism at all costsWhen you are overloaded with work don’t try to do every task perfectly. Just do every job to a 70– 80% standard of excellence. That way you’ll get through the list in half the time. If you have some time left over at the end you can always go back and finesse some tasks, but generally in the business world you are better off getting more stuff done then doing a small number of jobs exceedingly well.

So the next time you are feeling overwhelmed with your workloads, resist the urge to just work harder and longer. Instead, stop working. Get clear. Get calm. Get direction. Then and only then get to work again. This simple 5 step clarity system will make a major difference to both your effectiveness and your happiness.